Novel AI-based device to provide wireless tracking of health

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are building a device that uses machine learning, and is similar to a Wi-Fi router, to track breathing, heart rate, sleep, gait, just by sitting in one spot.

The device can help people living with conditions like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, depression, and pulmonary diseases and enable their physicians to wirelessly monitor their health.

The novel device will be able to replace the array of expensive, bulky, uncomfortable gear we currently need to get clinical data about the body.

It transmits a low-power wireless signal throughout a space the size of a one- or two-bedroom apartment (even through walls), and the signal reflects off people’s bodies.

The device then uses machine learning to analyze those reflected signals and extract physiological data.

It can accurately monitor sleep, including individual sleep stages, in a person’s own bed, with no changes to the way they sleep or what they wear.

Importantly, the data is collected only about specific traits and only with a person’s consent.